One
of the things that many people hate the most about commercials on TV
is that the volume of those commercials is often much higher than the
volume of the show being watched. That means that TV watchers end up
having to have the remote in hands to adjust the volume constantly
and depending on the show and the number of commercials that constant
adjustment can quickly get annoying.

Congress has passed
a new act that is headed to Obama's desk called the CALM
Act that will force commercial makers to regulate the volume
of their commercials so that the commercials are no louder than the
accompanying programming. President Obama is expected to sign the
bill into law. CALM stands for Commercial Advertising Loudness
Mitigation. The act has been in the works for a while and was
approved by the House and Senate this week clearing the way for Obama
to sign it into law.

The Wall
Street Journal quotes
Rep. Anna Eshoo, the sponsor of the House bill, saying, "Consumers
have been asking for a solution to this problem for decades, and
today they finally have it. [The bill] gives consumers peace of mind,
because it puts them in control of the sound in their homes."

The
FCC has received complaints about the volume of ads for years and has
historically told users to simply mute the volume. Eshoo said,
"Consumers will no longer have to experience being blasted at.
It’s a simple fix to a huge nuisance."

The sponsor of
the Senate bill was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. Whitehouse stated,
"While this is far from the biggest issue we face, it will mean
one less daily annoyance in our lives."